The 26th Army ( Russian: 26-я армия ''26-ya armiya'') was a

field army A field army (or numbered army or simply army) is a military formation in many armed forces, composed of two or more corps and may be subordinate to an army group. Likewise, Air army, air armies are equivalent formation within some air forces, ...

of the Soviet Union's

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

, active from 1941.

Operational history

First Formation

26th Army was a part of the

Southwestern Front (Soviet Union) The Southwestern Front was a front of the Red Army during the Second World War, formed thrice. It was first created on June 22, 1941 from the Kiev Special Military District. The western boundary of the front in June 1941 was 865 km long, ...

and defended the Soviet-German border between

Przemyśl Przemyśl (; yi, פשעמישל, Pshemishl; uk, Перемишль, Peremyshl; german: Premissel) is a city in southeastern Poland with 58,721 inhabitants, as of December 2021. In 1999, it became part of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship; it was p ...

and the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretche ...

in June 1941. The Army was located on the eastern bank of San river manning the 8th

Fortified District A fortified district or fortified region (russian: Укреплённый район, Укрепрайон, ukreplyonny raion, ukrepraion) in the military terminology of the Soviet Union, is a territory within which a complex system of defense fo ...

. The 26th Army commander was Lt. Gen.

Fyodor Kostenko Fyodor Yakovlevich Kostenko (russian: Фёдор Яковлевич Костенко; 22 February 1896–26 May 1942) was a Soviet corps and army commander. Biography He was born in Bolshaya Martynovka, Martynovsky District, Rostov Oblast ...

who was a Ukrainian. Its opponent was the German Seventeenth Army under command of General

Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel Carl-Heinrich Rudolf Wilhelm von Stülpnagel (2 January 1886 – 30 August 1944) was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II who was an army level commander. While serving as military commander of German-occupied France and as comm ...

. The 26th Army consisted of the

8th Rifle Corps The 8th Estonian Rifle Corps (Soviet), Rifle Corps (2nd formation) (russian: 8-й Эстонский стрелковый корпус, et, 8. Eesti Laskurkorpus) was a formation in the Red Army, created on 6 November 1942, during Eastern Front ...

, with the 99th Rifle Division,

173rd Rifle Division 173rd or 173d may refer to: * 173d Air Refueling Squadron, unit of the Nebraska Air National Guard 155th Air Refueling Wing * 173D Special Troops Battalion, combat engineer battalion of the United States Army headquartered in Italy *173rd (3/1st Lo ...

, and the

72nd Mountain Rifle Division The 72nd Mountain Rifle Division was formed as a specialized infantry division of the Red Army in the spring of 1941, based on the 72nd Rifle Division (1936 formation) which had previously been the 4th Turkestan Division. At the time of the German ...

, the 8th Fortified District, a number of artillery units (the 2nd Anti-Tank Brigade, 233rd Corps Artillery Regiment, 236th Corps Artillery Regiment, and the 28th Independent Anti-Aircraft Squadron, the

8th Mechanised Corps The 8th Mechanized Corps, was a Mechanized Corps (Soviet), mechanized corps of the Soviet Ground Forces. It was destroyed in 1941 in the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. The formation of the 8th Mechanized Corps began on June 4, 1940. The comman ...

with the 12th Tank Division,

34th Tank Division The 34th Tank Division was a formation of the Red Army and Soviet Ground Forces that was formed twice. First formation The first formation was with 8th Mechanized Corps in 1941. The formation began to be formed on June 4, 1940; it was under ...

, and the

7th Mechanized Division The 7th Mechanized Corps was a mechanized corps of the Red Army, formed three times. The corps was first formed in 1934 in the Leningrad Military District and was converted into the 10th Tank Corps in 1938. The corps was reformed in the summer of ...

), and the 17th Pontoon-Bridge Regiment on 22 June 1941. Headquarters was at

Borislav Borislav or Boryslav ( Cyrillic script: Борислав) is a Slavic male given name. People who have this name include: *Borislav Cvetković, a Croatian-born Serbian football manager and former player * Borislav Ivanov, a Bulgarian chess play ...

. The Germans attacked the junction between 6th Army and 26th Army. On 23 June General Kirponos ordered 26th Army armour troops (

8th Mechanized Corps The 8th Mechanized Corps, was a mechanized corps of the Soviet Ground Forces. It was destroyed in 1941 in the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. The formation of the 8th Mechanized Corps began on June 4, 1940. The commander was General Lieutenant ...

) to move to Brody out of the command of Kostenko. Meanwhile, German assault created a twenty-mile breach on 24 June. During the night from 26th to 27 June, 6th and 26th retreated from frontier fortifications. The 26th Army and 12th Army now held a line from Ostropol to

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar ( ...

. On 10 July Kostenko's Army together with 6th Army and 12th Army became threatened by south eastern swing of Kleist's

1st Panzer Group The 1st Panzer Army (german: 1. Panzerarmee) was a German tank army that was a large armoured formation of the Wehrmacht during World War II. When originally formed on 1 March 1940, the predecessor of the 1st Panzer Army was named Panzer Group ...

, which could cut them off from

Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...

river. On 20 July two Rifle Corps of 26th Army attacked in northern direction towards the Dnieper. Only small part of the 26th Army with its commander reached the Dnieper. Most of its units were destroyed or captured by Germans. The 6th Army and 26th Army were split apart.

Second Formation

The 26th Army was quickly rebuilt in October 1941 by subsequent reinforcements and included elements of the 1st Guards Special Rifle Corps and now defended the Dnieper river at Kaniev and Rzhishchev south-west of Kiev. 6th and 12th Army ended up in

Uman Uman ( uk, Умань, ; pl, Humań; yi, אומאַן) is a city located in Cherkasy Oblast in central Ukraine, to the east of Vinnytsia. Located in the historical region of the eastern Podolia, the city rests on the banks of the Umanka River ...

Pocket. 26th Army tried to relieve those armies and attacked in the Boguslav- Zwenigorodka direction. It didn't work. In September 26th Army itself became surrounded in the Kiev Pocket. The Soviets tried to break out, 26th Army was supposed to attack on Lubny. General Kostenko escaped from the encirclement with quite a large group of his soldiers. The army was disbanded and the remaining forces were assigned to the 50th Army.

Third Formation

The third time, 26th Army formed in November 1941 in the

Volga Military District The Volga Military District (PriVO) was a military district of the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation that existed from 1918 to 1989 and 1992 to 2001. The district headquarters was located at Kazan, Saratov and Kuibyshev (Samara) at different ...

. On 18 December it was assigned to the newly formed

Volkhov Front The Volkhov Front (russian: Волховский фронт) was a major formation of the Red Army during the first period of the Second World War. It was formed as an expediency of an early attempt to halt the advance of the Wehrmacht Army Group ...

. In late December 1941 the army was redesignated as the

2nd Shock Army The 2nd Shock Army (russian: 2-я Ударная армия) was a field army of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. This type of formation was created in accordance with prewar doctrine that called for Shock Armies to ''overcome diffi ...

. Commander: Lieutenant General Grigory Grigorievich Sokolov (November–December 1941)

Fourth Formation

The army was reformed for the fourth time within the

Karelian Front The Karelian Front russian: Карельский фронт) was a front (a formation of Army Group size) of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II, and operated in Karelia. Wartime The Karelian Front was created in August 1941 when ...

in March–April 1942. On 1 January 1943 the army comprised 27th, 54th, 186th, and 263rd Rifle Divisions, 61st, 67th, 80th (без 2 б-на), and 85th Naval Infantry Brigades, artillery, and other units. Commander in 1943-1945 was Major General (later Lieutenant General) Lev Skvirsky.

Composition

At the end of the war the army consisted of:Marchand, Vol. XXIII, pg.45-6 :

30th Rifle Corps 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...

:: 36th Guards Rifle Division ::

68th Guards Rifle Division The 68th Guards Rifle Division was reformed as an elite infantry division of the Red Army in February 1943, based on the 1st formation of the 96th Rifle Division, and served in that role until after the end of the Great Patriotic War. It originall ...

:: 21st Rifle Division : 104th Rifle Corps :: 74th Rifle Division :: 93rd Rifle Division :: 151st Rifle Division : 135th Rifle Corps ::

233rd Rifle Division The 233rd Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army, originally formed in the months just before the start of the German invasion, based on the ''shtat'' (table of organization and equipment) of September 13, 1939. As part of 20th Ar ...

:: 236th Rifle Division :Artillery, engineer, and tank units.

Commanders

* Lieutenant General

(June–September 1941) * Major General Alexey Kurkin (October 1941) * Lieutenant General Grigory Grigorievich Sokolov (November–December 1941) * Major General Nikolai Nikishin (March 1942 – May 1943) * Major General (later Lieutenant General) Lev Skvirsky (May 1943 – January 1945) * Lieutenant General

Nikolai Gagen Nikolai Alexandrovitsch Gagen (Russian: Николай Александрович Гаген) (Lakhta, Saint Petersburg, March 12/24 1895 - Moscow, May 20, 1969) was a Soviet Lieutenant General in World War II. Biography Nikolai Gagen's ancest ...

(January–May 1945)

Post War Service

The army ended the war in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

and was assigned to the

Southern Group of Forces Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, ...

. The army along with most of its subordinate units were disbanded in 1947. The 25th Guards and 23rd Mechanized Divisions were reassigned to the Ukraine.

References

* *

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20081216013802/http://docs.vif2.ru/ {{Armies of the Soviet Army 026